Macquarie Equities Research (MER) said that although second quarter 2011 results for PetroBakken Energy (PBN:TSX) were slightly below expectations, MER was maintaining its rating of NEUTRAL for the company's stock.

Macquarie stated that they originally expected a moderate quarter from the Calgary, Alberta-based excavator of oil, but operating expenses for every barrel of oil extracted were significantly higher than predicted. The sharp increase in operating expenses reduced earnings per share (EPS) to $0.81, about 10 percent lower than Macquarie's prediction of $0.88.

PetroBakken – which closed on Monday, August 8, at $10.29 per share – stated its opinion that extremely adverse weather conditions served to decrease supply and therefore increase operating expenses per barrel. The company predicted that the cost of production increased $3.50 per barrel because of wet weather in Central Alberta and southeast Saskatchewan.

In light of this new information, Macquarie has reduced its CFPS predictions for 2011 and 2012 by 6 percent each. This changes the equities research firm estimates to $3.56 in 2011 and $4.05 for 2012.

PetroBakken's stock has had a low of $10.18 and a high $23.70 in the last 52 weeks.